Help Yum Jar scale our Zero Waste, Zero Carbon Business!

By Ottilie Smith

NZ $10,352 pledged


149 people pledged


Closed


NZ $10,000 minimum target


100 100% Complete

This campaign was successful and closed on 22/09/2019 at 9:00 PM.

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About

Help Yum Jar Scale Our Zero Waste, Zero Carbon Business!

Project 2019-07-17 13:35:02 +1200

What is Yum Jar?

Yum Jar creates and delivers freshly made, healthy lunches from zero waste ingredients to Wellingtonians in reusable glass jars. These are delivered by bicycle couriers NoCar Cargo to the CBD, so most of our deliveries are zero carbon as well as zero waste! The jars are picked up from our customers the next time they receive an order, returned to our kitchen, washed and sterilised for continuous reuse, creating a Zero Waste delivery system and cycle.

 

Check out our website yumjar.co.nz for more info on how we operate!

 

Currently our kitchen has a max capacity of only 40 orders per day, so with our growing customer base, and to make our business more sustainable, we need to move to a larger kitchen, hire another chef, and hire an electric vehicle for our suburb deliveries, to make them zero waste. While we have been growing as a business, we don't have the capital to support the jump from small to medium and make these changes happen. But with your help (for some sweet rewards) we can make the transition as smooth as possible, and improve our service while we're at it! 

 

Our Zero Waste Cycle

 

All the businesse we buy services from are local or kiwi owned, and operated here in Wellington. Arthur Holmes and Service Foods are conveniently located within 5 minutes of our new kitchen in Petone, while Shoots, Commonsense Organics, Hopper Home Eco Shop and The Big Picture are all located in central Wellington. When we have to pick up items we do this at the end of each delivery run before heading home, to keep our carbon miles down, and supporting our local economy!

 

Our Vision

With growth, we will:

1. Stay Zero Waste: Continue to operate a Zero Waste kitchen - no waste to landfill, minimal recycling and compost

2. Switch to Zero Carbon: Deliver our lunches Zero Carbon with help from Nocar Cargo bicycle couriers and by using  an electric car for suburb deliveries

3. Employ Ethically: Provide sustainable, ethical job opportunities for hospitality staff by offering a living wage or above to all staff

4. Expand our Eats: Diversify our menu with Sweet Treats and a more diverse range of Zero Waste lunch options daily

  

Our (brief) Herstory

Yum Jar was started single-handedly (with minimal savings) by Ottilie Smith, a locally trained chef with over 12 years hospitality experience. A cafe addict and plant-based food lover, it's been her personal dream to own her own food business for years, and in 2018 she decided it was now or never, so bravely quit her full time Sous Chef position to start work on what has become Yum Jar.

 

Yum Jar has been operated from her WCC-approved home kitchen for 6 months since opening in January. While passionate about the industry, Ottilie felt that there were some fundamental issues that needed addressing, namely, the negative impact takeaway and convenient food has on our environment, and the health and wellbeing of staff in the industry (and their bank balances). She believes that, while convenience is essential in our fast-paced society, neither the environment nor the people in the hopspitality industry should be neglected, and so set out to create Yum Jar with these issues in mind and heart. 

 

Yum Jar had a rocky start, first with a fire in Ottilie's building in week 2 (caused by old electrical faults, not Ottilie's cooking!!), multiple Yum Jar car breakdowns, and (thankfully a minimal amount of) broken jars along the way. But with continued perseverance, and support from customers, friends and whanau, Yum Jar has continued to grow. To date we have hand-made and delivered over 3000 Yum Jars to our hungry customers!

 

In May, Yum Jar was introduced to NoCar Cargo - a small team of Cycle Couriers, and thus blossomed a match made in heaven! Over 80% of Yum Jars are hand-delivered by Nocar on their bicycles - reducing our carbon footprint, as well as the number of cars on Wellington's streets.

 

In July Ottilie started looking for a bigger kitchen to house her growing operation, and stumbled across the perfect place at the end of Jackson Street, Petone. This new kitchen is shared with 2 other Wellington owned food businesses, Mamia's Sauce and Paella Boys, but is big enough to support more than double the amount of Yum Jars currently being made. (This is good news for Petonians as we will be including Petone in our delivery zone once we have settled in!) Yum Jar is moving here in early August as it is an affordable space, and demand has grown too much to stay in Ottilie's home kitchen.

 

The latest addition to Yum Jar's team is Frank Schatz, a local chef with over 20 years experience in kitchens, both local and global; he is a walking encyclopaedia of knowledge on everything culinary with the skills to prove it! Frank also runs a delicious local artisan preserve company, Arcadia Preserves. He is in charge of kitchen operations for Yum Jar starting mid-August. We can't wait to have him on board and in the kitchen. This will allow Ottilie more time to focus on running the business, as well as bring in new inspiration and fresh flavours to Yum Jar's menu.

 

Meet the Team

Ottilie: Owner, Chef, Delivery Driver, Admin

 

Frank: Our new Chef

 

NoCar Cargo Co-owners and Cyclists Jamie & Christian one of their riders, Chris, and Ottilie on their first day of collaboration!

 

What we need, and why

The funds we raise will help us to cover the beginnings of our growth period: that in-between-time where we haven’t quite hit the level of customers we will be able to support that will make our business sustainable, but are needing the extra space, staff and resources to achieve that growth. We also (this is awkward) have some bills to pay! Starting Yum Jar as a start up from scratch has been a bit of a financial challenge, and initally we were charging only $10 per jar, which in reality was not covering our costs at all. We've since increased our sale prices slightly, and most purchases are now $12.50 per lunch, which we think is still a great price, especially with delivery included!

Thankfully as soon as we start to scale, the Gross Profit percentage increases, (see the Cashflow table below). To make sure we will be doing it right from here onwards, we've enlisted some help from the local accountants at Go Figure, and they're going to help us get on track to success - some of your Pledgeme money will cover the cost of them helping us transition Yum Jar's accounts to a Company, as we have been trading as a Sole Trader since January so there's a bit to process, and unfortunately Ottilie has a Chef qualificaiton, not an accounting one!

 

As we grow we are going to need more team members, but we only want to do this when we can afford to pay them (and when we are already paying Ottilie and Frank) at least a living wage!

 

In the future, we have plans to expand out to Porirua, and even other cities in New Zealand. But that's a long term dream.

Right now, the team is Ottilie, Frank & Nocar Cargo, and with your support, we can make Yum Jar's All Taste, Zero Waste future possible for Wellington! 

 

Comments

Updates 2

You need to pledge to see this update.

We're SO CLOSE!

16/09/2019 at 4:26 PM

Hi everybody, 

First off, thankyou all for pledging to our cause, we have been overwhelmed by the generosity and support from you all. We're now in the last 6 days of our campaign and have less than 1/4 of our goal to fund! Unbelievable!

It's now more crucial than ever that we reach that goal. As some of you may have heard, just over a week ago the Yum Jar car had to be relieved of its duties, as it was too old and worn to get a new WOF. As a small, second hand car, bought simply to get from a to b to begin with, the "Yum Car" as it came to be referred to exceeded our expectations by lasting more than 3 years on Wellington's slim streets and high hills, and we couldn't have started Yum Jar without it! However, we don't do giving up, so it's only onwards and upwards into the future! This is really an opportunity. With your support, if we reach our goal, some of the pledgeme funds raised will go towards financing an electric vehicle of our own for all our deliveries and errands. In the meantime, to keep us going, once we reach our goal, we will be using Mevo's electric cars for delivery, to make your YUm Jars even more environmentally friendly.

We're so excited! It looks like our dream might just become a reality, and that means it's party time! On Wednesday 2nd October we're holding a wee shindig for all our friends and supporters at Southern Cross, with live entertainment, a private bar, and snacks for everyone! There are still some tickets left on our campaign to purchase, and we have some special VIP tickets that include a free drink on entry, so don't wait until the last minute to buy yours! If your business has donated via our Jump Into Our Jar PLUS or Plus LUNCH rewards, you are most welcome to come along - there is a limit of 20 for these spots though so don't be too late or you'll miss on on the action. Finally, the event is family friendly, so feel free to bring your mini-mes along too. We hope to see you all there!

What better way to wrap up the campaign than by bringing ourselves to you? We're doing just that THIS SUNDAY at the Vegan Expo, being held at the Southward Car Museum in Kapiti. Tickets are only $6.50 online now, or $8 on the door. We'll be there at food stall #9 on the map, and our new Chef Frank will also be bring some of his delicious plant based, gluten free preserves and kimchi! We will have some free samples and some hot tasty Yum Jar favourites that you can buy for lunch - you can even fill your jar yourself! Best of all we will be showing off our Sweet Treats, which we will have very limited numbers of, so get there as early as you can! We will be providing forks and spoons on site to keep our stall zero waste. We can't wait to meet everyone and get to know your faces a bit better. Make a day of it! Bring your crew, and check out the 50+ businesses in NZ's plant based community.

Once again, huge thanks to you all! In these last few days, please share our campaign to your crowd, on your facebook, office, email contacts, instagram, twitter, tumblr, even your tindr! - anywhere and everywhere, with a few words to encourage others to get behind our cause; we will be forever grateful, and we can't wait to send out all your rewards for pledging too!

Much love and endless gratitude from your "magical food elf", Yum Jar's founder, owner, and operator, and a believer in a better world,

Ottilie

    Pledgers 149

    Anonymous pledger
    18/09/2019 at 6:55am
    Zane
    17/09/2019 at 8:27pm

    "Great set of sustainable and humane ideas, awesome to see in this industry!"

    Anonymous pledger
    17/09/2019 at 3:30pm
    Lisa Wild
    17/09/2019 at 9:30am

    "Really hoping you'll deliver to Miramar!"

    Karen Singleton
    17/09/2019 at 8:35am
    Ash King
    17/09/2019 at 8:09am

    "Good luck!"

    Antony Dixon
    16/09/2019 at 8:37pm

    "So close to target now!"

    Ilka Kapica
    16/09/2019 at 4:42pm
    Mona Oliver
    16/09/2019 at 2:08pm
    Tree Anna Elizabeth
    16/09/2019 at 11:50am
    Morgan Ryan
    15/09/2019 at 4:07pm
    Hilary Rose Cook
    15/09/2019 at 1:47pm
    Haran
    15/09/2019 at 11:52am
    Paul McKeown
    15/09/2019 at 10:07am
    Kirsty Buggins
    15/09/2019 at 10:04am
    Sarah
    13/09/2019 at 9:15pm
    Lauryn
    13/09/2019 at 5:45pm

    "This sounds ideal therefore it belongs in my ideal world. Woohoo!"

    Anonymous pledger
    12/09/2019 at 8:06pm
    Emma Maguire Alldridge
    12/09/2019 at 7:18pm

    "Such an awesome concept! Can't wait until you can expand to Christchurch! 😉"

    Anonymous pledger
    12/09/2019 at 6:02pm

    "Good luck!!! "

    Lucy Kebbell
    12/09/2019 at 1:30pm

    "Pledge made on behalf of Commonsense!"

    Ilka Kapica
    10/09/2019 at 3:33pm
    olie
    10/09/2019 at 12:44pm

    "Rock on team! Your mahi is so fantastic and so needed! "

    Tim Hope
    10/09/2019 at 9:38am
    Richard Vargr
    09/09/2019 at 10:41pm

    "Good Luck! I am so proud of you! :)"

    Nicole Benkert
    09/09/2019 at 10:03pm
    Anonymous pledger
    09/09/2019 at 7:12pm
    Andrew Pope
    09/09/2019 at 1:16pm
    Tree Anna Elizabeth
    07/09/2019 at 5:49pm
    Martin White
    07/09/2019 at 9:44am

    "Come on everybody, help Ottilie get there, she's awesome!"

    Followers 3

    Followers of Help Yum Jar scale our Zero Waste, Zero Carbon Business!

    Help Yum Jar Scale Our Zero Waste, Zero Carbon Business!

    Project 2019-07-17 13:35:02 +1200

    What is Yum Jar?

    Yum Jar creates and delivers freshly made, healthy lunches from zero waste ingredients to Wellingtonians in reusable glass jars. These are delivered by bicycle couriers NoCar Cargo to the CBD, so most of our deliveries are zero carbon as well as zero waste! The jars are picked up from our customers the next time they receive an order, returned to our kitchen, washed and sterilised for continuous reuse, creating a Zero Waste delivery system and cycle.

     

    Check out our website yumjar.co.nz for more info on how we operate!

     

    Currently our kitchen has a max capacity of only 40 orders per day, so with our growing customer base, and to make our business more sustainable, we need to move to a larger kitchen, hire another chef, and hire an electric vehicle for our suburb deliveries, to make them zero waste. While we have been growing as a business, we don't have the capital to support the jump from small to medium and make these changes happen. But with your help (for some sweet rewards) we can make the transition as smooth as possible, and improve our service while we're at it! 

     

    Our Zero Waste Cycle

     

    All the businesse we buy services from are local or kiwi owned, and operated here in Wellington. Arthur Holmes and Service Foods are conveniently located within 5 minutes of our new kitchen in Petone, while Shoots, Commonsense Organics, Hopper Home Eco Shop and The Big Picture are all located in central Wellington. When we have to pick up items we do this at the end of each delivery run before heading home, to keep our carbon miles down, and supporting our local economy!

     

    Our Vision

    With growth, we will:

    1. Stay Zero Waste: Continue to operate a Zero Waste kitchen - no waste to landfill, minimal recycling and compost

    2. Switch to Zero Carbon: Deliver our lunches Zero Carbon with help from Nocar Cargo bicycle couriers and by using  an electric car for suburb deliveries

    3. Employ Ethically: Provide sustainable, ethical job opportunities for hospitality staff by offering a living wage or above to all staff

    4. Expand our Eats: Diversify our menu with Sweet Treats and a more diverse range of Zero Waste lunch options daily

      

    Our (brief) Herstory

    Yum Jar was started single-handedly (with minimal savings) by Ottilie Smith, a locally trained chef with over 12 years hospitality experience. A cafe addict and plant-based food lover, it's been her personal dream to own her own food business for years, and in 2018 she decided it was now or never, so bravely quit her full time Sous Chef position to start work on what has become Yum Jar.

     

    Yum Jar has been operated from her WCC-approved home kitchen for 6 months since opening in January. While passionate about the industry, Ottilie felt that there were some fundamental issues that needed addressing, namely, the negative impact takeaway and convenient food has on our environment, and the health and wellbeing of staff in the industry (and their bank balances). She believes that, while convenience is essential in our fast-paced society, neither the environment nor the people in the hopspitality industry should be neglected, and so set out to create Yum Jar with these issues in mind and heart. 

     

    Yum Jar had a rocky start, first with a fire in Ottilie's building in week 2 (caused by old electrical faults, not Ottilie's cooking!!), multiple Yum Jar car breakdowns, and (thankfully a minimal amount of) broken jars along the way. But with continued perseverance, and support from customers, friends and whanau, Yum Jar has continued to grow. To date we have hand-made and delivered over 3000 Yum Jars to our hungry customers!

     

    In May, Yum Jar was introduced to NoCar Cargo - a small team of Cycle Couriers, and thus blossomed a match made in heaven! Over 80% of Yum Jars are hand-delivered by Nocar on their bicycles - reducing our carbon footprint, as well as the number of cars on Wellington's streets.

     

    In July Ottilie started looking for a bigger kitchen to house her growing operation, and stumbled across the perfect place at the end of Jackson Street, Petone. This new kitchen is shared with 2 other Wellington owned food businesses, Mamia's Sauce and Paella Boys, but is big enough to support more than double the amount of Yum Jars currently being made. (This is good news for Petonians as we will be including Petone in our delivery zone once we have settled in!) Yum Jar is moving here in early August as it is an affordable space, and demand has grown too much to stay in Ottilie's home kitchen.

     

    The latest addition to Yum Jar's team is Frank Schatz, a local chef with over 20 years experience in kitchens, both local and global; he is a walking encyclopaedia of knowledge on everything culinary with the skills to prove it! Frank also runs a delicious local artisan preserve company, Arcadia Preserves. He is in charge of kitchen operations for Yum Jar starting mid-August. We can't wait to have him on board and in the kitchen. This will allow Ottilie more time to focus on running the business, as well as bring in new inspiration and fresh flavours to Yum Jar's menu.

     

    Meet the Team

    Ottilie: Owner, Chef, Delivery Driver, Admin

     

    Frank: Our new Chef

     

    NoCar Cargo Co-owners and Cyclists Jamie & Christian one of their riders, Chris, and Ottilie on their first day of collaboration!

     

    What we need, and why

    The funds we raise will help us to cover the beginnings of our growth period: that in-between-time where we haven’t quite hit the level of customers we will be able to support that will make our business sustainable, but are needing the extra space, staff and resources to achieve that growth. We also (this is awkward) have some bills to pay! Starting Yum Jar as a start up from scratch has been a bit of a financial challenge, and initally we were charging only $10 per jar, which in reality was not covering our costs at all. We've since increased our sale prices slightly, and most purchases are now $12.50 per lunch, which we think is still a great price, especially with delivery included!

    Thankfully as soon as we start to scale, the Gross Profit percentage increases, (see the Cashflow table below). To make sure we will be doing it right from here onwards, we've enlisted some help from the local accountants at Go Figure, and they're going to help us get on track to success - some of your Pledgeme money will cover the cost of them helping us transition Yum Jar's accounts to a Company, as we have been trading as a Sole Trader since January so there's a bit to process, and unfortunately Ottilie has a Chef qualificaiton, not an accounting one!

     

    As we grow we are going to need more team members, but we only want to do this when we can afford to pay them (and when we are already paying Ottilie and Frank) at least a living wage!

     

    In the future, we have plans to expand out to Porirua, and even other cities in New Zealand. But that's a long term dream.

    Right now, the team is Ottilie, Frank & Nocar Cargo, and with your support, we can make Yum Jar's All Taste, Zero Waste future possible for Wellington! 

     

    Comments

    You need to pledge to see this update.

    We're SO CLOSE!

    16/09/2019 at 4:26 PM

    Hi everybody, 

    First off, thankyou all for pledging to our cause, we have been overwhelmed by the generosity and support from you all. We're now in the last 6 days of our campaign and have less than 1/4 of our goal to fund! Unbelievable!

    It's now more crucial than ever that we reach that goal. As some of you may have heard, just over a week ago the Yum Jar car had to be relieved of its duties, as it was too old and worn to get a new WOF. As a small, second hand car, bought simply to get from a to b to begin with, the "Yum Car" as it came to be referred to exceeded our expectations by lasting more than 3 years on Wellington's slim streets and high hills, and we couldn't have started Yum Jar without it! However, we don't do giving up, so it's only onwards and upwards into the future! This is really an opportunity. With your support, if we reach our goal, some of the pledgeme funds raised will go towards financing an electric vehicle of our own for all our deliveries and errands. In the meantime, to keep us going, once we reach our goal, we will be using Mevo's electric cars for delivery, to make your YUm Jars even more environmentally friendly.

    We're so excited! It looks like our dream might just become a reality, and that means it's party time! On Wednesday 2nd October we're holding a wee shindig for all our friends and supporters at Southern Cross, with live entertainment, a private bar, and snacks for everyone! There are still some tickets left on our campaign to purchase, and we have some special VIP tickets that include a free drink on entry, so don't wait until the last minute to buy yours! If your business has donated via our Jump Into Our Jar PLUS or Plus LUNCH rewards, you are most welcome to come along - there is a limit of 20 for these spots though so don't be too late or you'll miss on on the action. Finally, the event is family friendly, so feel free to bring your mini-mes along too. We hope to see you all there!

    What better way to wrap up the campaign than by bringing ourselves to you? We're doing just that THIS SUNDAY at the Vegan Expo, being held at the Southward Car Museum in Kapiti. Tickets are only $6.50 online now, or $8 on the door. We'll be there at food stall #9 on the map, and our new Chef Frank will also be bring some of his delicious plant based, gluten free preserves and kimchi! We will have some free samples and some hot tasty Yum Jar favourites that you can buy for lunch - you can even fill your jar yourself! Best of all we will be showing off our Sweet Treats, which we will have very limited numbers of, so get there as early as you can! We will be providing forks and spoons on site to keep our stall zero waste. We can't wait to meet everyone and get to know your faces a bit better. Make a day of it! Bring your crew, and check out the 50+ businesses in NZ's plant based community.

    Once again, huge thanks to you all! In these last few days, please share our campaign to your crowd, on your facebook, office, email contacts, instagram, twitter, tumblr, even your tindr! - anywhere and everywhere, with a few words to encourage others to get behind our cause; we will be forever grateful, and we can't wait to send out all your rewards for pledging too!

    Much love and endless gratitude from your "magical food elf", Yum Jar's founder, owner, and operator, and a believer in a better world,

    Ottilie

      Anonymous pledger
      18/09/2019 at 6:55am
      Zane
      17/09/2019 at 8:27pm

      "Great set of sustainable and humane ideas, awesome to see in this industry!"

      Anonymous pledger
      17/09/2019 at 3:30pm
      Lisa Wild
      17/09/2019 at 9:30am

      "Really hoping you'll deliver to Miramar!"

      Karen Singleton
      17/09/2019 at 8:35am
      Ash King
      17/09/2019 at 8:09am

      "Good luck!"

      Antony Dixon
      16/09/2019 at 8:37pm

      "So close to target now!"

      Ilka Kapica
      16/09/2019 at 4:42pm
      Mona Oliver
      16/09/2019 at 2:08pm
      Tree Anna Elizabeth
      16/09/2019 at 11:50am
      Morgan Ryan
      15/09/2019 at 4:07pm
      Hilary Rose Cook
      15/09/2019 at 1:47pm
      Haran
      15/09/2019 at 11:52am
      Paul McKeown
      15/09/2019 at 10:07am
      Kirsty Buggins
      15/09/2019 at 10:04am
      Sarah
      13/09/2019 at 9:15pm
      Lauryn
      13/09/2019 at 5:45pm

      "This sounds ideal therefore it belongs in my ideal world. Woohoo!"

      Anonymous pledger
      12/09/2019 at 8:06pm
      Emma Maguire Alldridge
      12/09/2019 at 7:18pm

      "Such an awesome concept! Can't wait until you can expand to Christchurch! 😉"

      Anonymous pledger
      12/09/2019 at 6:02pm

      "Good luck!!! "

      Lucy Kebbell
      12/09/2019 at 1:30pm

      "Pledge made on behalf of Commonsense!"

      Ilka Kapica
      10/09/2019 at 3:33pm
      olie
      10/09/2019 at 12:44pm

      "Rock on team! Your mahi is so fantastic and so needed! "

      Tim Hope
      10/09/2019 at 9:38am
      Richard Vargr
      09/09/2019 at 10:41pm

      "Good Luck! I am so proud of you! :)"

      Nicole Benkert
      09/09/2019 at 10:03pm
      Anonymous pledger
      09/09/2019 at 7:12pm
      Andrew Pope
      09/09/2019 at 1:16pm
      Tree Anna Elizabeth
      07/09/2019 at 5:49pm
      Martin White
      07/09/2019 at 9:44am

      "Come on everybody, help Ottilie get there, she's awesome!"

      Followers of Help Yum Jar scale our Zero Waste, Zero Carbon Business!

      This campaign was successful and got its funding on 22/09/2019 at 9:00 PM.
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